What is a Security Vulnerability?

Uptime, profitability, and resource management are all essential topics, and all of them need proper attention. In fact, most of these ideas are at the forefront of your mind all the time.

But what about security?

“Of course!” is usually the response.

Unfortunately, most of the time security is an afterthought or handled as a reaction when issues arise. Those of us in the industry know the truth: good security practices save resources before there’s an issue.

What is a Security Vulnerability?

Think of a security vulnerability as a crack. It may not be immediately visible. It may not be causing you issues right at this moment. You may not even know it exists.

But it’s there waiting to be exploited.

Most software developers don’t even know exploitable vulnerabilities exists. Hackers, on the other hand, make it a daily mission to look for possible entry points in standard operations so they can gain access to your systems and data.

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From a Security Vulnerability to an Exploit

The transition from security vulnerability to exploit, if done well, is often silent. Once access is gained, it’s in a hacker’s best interest to keep it hidden so they can continue to exploit as they please.

This usually includes removing or hiding logs and stopping reporting functions all while maintaining other running processes in working order. This approach gives them the time to use the system or its data as a perpetual resource and makes it hard to catch them.

There are many services, including Liquid Web’s Protection and Remediation product, which help to clean up after a malware or exploit incident, but wouldn’t it be better just to avoid the issue altogether?

Only give people access if it’s required, map those users to the systems to which they have access, and keep it up to date.

Stronger Passwords

Passwords are another necessary evil. I would love to live in a world where I didn’t have multiple 12-character-long strings in my head and on my password manager, but that’s not the real world. The real world needs passwords, and it’s your job to make sure they’re secure.

The scans can be set up for any server with a public IP address, are scheduled once a month. Once completed it emails you a comprehensive and concise report on the findings. This allows you to patch the cracks before the security vulnerability becomes an exploit.

Security is also built-in. The scans, though external to your server, originate from servers on our network, so there’s no need to unnecessarily open your server to a foreign or third-party IP address.

You get the dependability of an external scan and the security of a local device.

Ready to Find Security Vulnerabilities?

While you get your mitigation plan, password policy, access control, and software updated, let our Vulnerability Assessment and Scanning get started on finding any security vulnerabilities – before they become exploited.

About the Author

A self-professed pirate captain with two decades of leadership experience, Jerry has lead teams from 60+ cooks and chefs to 16 Networking engineers in his current role as Liquid Web's Head of Network Operations and Platform. When not working or sleeping, Jerry can usually be found eating and having a good conversation with good people.